Best teachers to be offered £10,000 'golden handcuffs' payments

The best teachers will be offered £10,000 'golden handcuffs' payments to take
jobs in the worst-performing state secondary schools under new plans.

You don't have to be on your own to be lonely - there are plenty of people who share their homes and lives with loved ones and yet still feel lonely. Photo: GETTY

By James Kirkup and Graeme Paton

8:17PM GMT 12 Jan 2009

The deals will be outlined in a Government white paper aimed at improving the career prospects of children from the poorest homes.

Independent studies suggest that British children today are less socially mobile than their counterparts in other countries and more likely to end up in the same social class as their parents than the previous generation.

In response, ministers will today announce new plans to improve the exam results of children from poorer families.

From September, headteachers in the poorest areas will be able to offer new recruits the £10,000 payment at the end of three years' teaching. Half of the money will come from the Government and half from the school's budget.

Ministers say they are keen to give energetic and highly-qualified new teachers a financial incentive to stay in the profession. Research in 2008 suggested four in ten new teachers quit within the first two years.

The scheme will apply to "National Challenge" schools where fewer than 30 per cent of pupils get five good GCSEs including English and maths and those where at least 30 per cent are eligible for free school meals.

Headteachers will be given discretion to decide which new recruits should qualify although it is likely to be those who perform well at the best teacher training colleges.

Officials predict that more than 500 schools and 6,000 new appointments in England will be covered by the scheme.

Under the Labour government the average teacher’s salary has risen from around £21,500 to more than £34,000.

In addition ministers have repeatedly offered financial incentives to encourage the best teachers. Headteachers in large state secondary schools are now routinely paid more than £100,000, but many posts still remain empty.

Teaching unions have long argued for the best teachers to be paid more. However, with 500,000 teachers currently working in state schools, there are concerns that those who are not picked to receive the £10,000 deal may feel resentful.

Conservative sources accused Gordon Brown of stealing another of their policies. Michael Gove, the shadow schools secretary, said in November that a Tory government would give head teachers in poor schools "money to pay more for higher quality teaching."

Government sources said the teachers' golden handcuffs plan was developed following research last year by the Strategy Unit at the Cabinet Office. Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, said the package "will help attract the best teachers to the schools where they will make the most difference."

According to US academic studies assessed by the Cabinet Office, a good teacher can make the difference between an average pupil being in the top 40 per cent of a class or the bottom 10 per cent after three years

One British study found that out of a group of 50 teachers, a child taught by one of the best ten will learn at twice the speed as one taught by one of the worst ten.

The Government's Training and Development Agency for Schools says the best-qualified teachers are less likely to work in schools in the worst areas.

Many teachers transfer to the independent sector to take advantage of significantly smaller class sizes and often higher wages. According to the Independent Schools Council, 2,143 teachers moved from state to fee-paying schools in 2007/8.

Now, with some middle-class parents being forced to pull children out of private education, Government insiders think the golden handcuffs offer could help lure teachers from the independent sectors.

The Strategy Unit also identified the quality of care and education a child receives before the age of five as a key factor in later career progression, and the White Paper is likely to focus on expanding pre-school care schemes.

There will also be promises to improve employment opportunities for school-leavers and graduates from poorer homes. Internships at leading businesses will be offered to university leavers in a bid to help them find jobs.

400,000 graduates due to enter the job market this summer are facing the worst employment prospects for a generation.

Alan Milburn, the former Health Secretary, has agreed to lead discussions with senior members of professions such as the law and medicine about widening access for young people from poorer households.

Ministers say they are concerned about the "unfair" advantage gained by the children of middle class professionals who are able to get useful work experience places through family contacts, or use family wealth to support them during unpaid internships. The Tories have called that the politics of "class war."

In a pre-emptive attack on the social mobility White Paper, the Tories on Monday released a study they said showed that the poorest parts of the country are among the hardest hit by the recession and rising unemployment

The Tories said that Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester have seen some of the biggest rises in the number of people claiming unemployment benefits.

Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Chris Grayling said: "This completely undermines Labour's attempts to say they are going to tackle social mobility. Labour have had ten years to make a difference to social mobility but have failed. Now some of England's most deprived areas are being hit the hardest by the recession, making it far more difficult to tackle falling social mobility."